New York Times to New Yorkers: You're Supporting the Wrong Mayoral Candidate!

The New York Times (10/4/13) ran a curious piece on the front page October 4 that seemed to want to tell New York voters to reconsider their overwhelming preference for Democratic mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio.

The piece, by David Chen and Megan Thee-Brenan–headlined "Poll Finds Support for de Blasio, if Not All His Ideas"–began with this:

New York City voters want to keep Raymond W. Kelly as police commissioner. They want more charter schools. And nearly half of them support the Police Department's use of the stop-and-frisk tactic.

But the city's voters, by an enormous margin, are planning to support Bill de Blasio for mayor next month, despite the fact that Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat, opposes each of those positions, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll released on Friday.

The Times notes that deBlasio holds "a commanding lead of 68 percent to 19 percent among likely voters" over Republican candidate Joseph Lhota. So a reader might wonder: Are New Yorkers totally ignorant of de Blasio's views, ready to support by a substantial margin someone whose views on policy they don't actually support?

A more plausible explanation is that the opposite of the Times' lead is true: The public sides with de Blasio on most of the key issues in the race, and by substantial margins. And you can find evidence for that by reading, well, the very same New York Times article. Well into the article, the Times essentially takes back the implication of the story's headline and lead:

Voters shared several of Mr. de Blasio's priorities–particularly his desire to address income inequality and the high cost of housing and to improve public education. And a majority of voters suggested that they want the next mayor to prioritize reducing the gap between rich and poor, a key plank for Mr. de Blasio, rather than to create a climate that would reduce taxes and regulation to sustain job growth, something emphasized by Mr. Lhota.

On most issues, the poll found, Mr. de Blasio enjoyed a strong advantage over Mr. Lhota. By almost four to one, voters thought that Mr. de Blasio would do a better job than Mr. Lhota in improving public education. By almost three to one, they supported Mr. de Blasio’s proposal to increase taxes on high-earners to finance an expansion of prekindergarten education. And by almost two to one, they believed that Mr. de Blasio, not Mr. Lhota, would keep the city safe from crime or a terrorist attack or during a natural disaster.

So a more accurate headline would have been "Poll Finds Support for de Blasio, Along With Most of His Ideas."

But what about those issues where the public sides with Lhota? The Times would seem to be pushing that story further than the findings would allow. On stop-and-frisk, for instance, the public was split equally, 47 percent supporting it (Lhota's position) to 48 percent opposed. Yet in a graphic accompanying the print edition, stop-and-frisk was included under the heading "Where Voters Agreed With Lhota."

The Times led with the poll showing support for keeping Ray Kelly as police commissioner; 62 percent support the idea, while de Blasio proposes hiring a new commissioner. But as the Times also found:

Seven in 10 supported creating an independent inspector general to monitor the police–a measure passed by the City Council with Mr. de Blasio's support and Mr. Lhota's opposition.

It's hard to tell if a piece like this was mangled in the editing process, or if it's an attempt to inject some excitement into a race that has all the appearances of a blowout. In any case, the Times' curious treatment of its own poll has found an audience: Columnist Michael Goodwin for Murdoch's New York Post (10/6/13) wrote that the Times poll "finds that most New Yorkers, including many de Blasio backers, oppose big parts of his agenda."

It doesn't find that at all–but one could have easily gotten that impression from the New York Times.

Activism Director and and Co-producer of CounterSpinPeter Hart is the activism director at FAIR. He writes for FAIR's magazine Extra! and is also a co-host and producer of FAIR's syndicated radio show CounterSpin. He is the author of The Oh Really? Factor: Unspinning Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly (Seven Stories Press, 2003). Hart has been interviewed by a number of media outlets, including NBC Nightly News, Fox News Channel's O'Reilly Factor, the Los Angeles Times, Newsday and the Associated Press. He has also appeared on Showtime and in the movie Outfoxed. Follow Peter on Twitter at @peterfhart.

Well, BB doesn't want De Blasio, so we are going to be told repeatedly and wrongly all about this person and why we can't have him. The Media is now no longer 'a servant to the public", it now wants the public to be the servant.

Wow! “Nearly half” of New Yorkers are racist! Like Doug, I too would like to see the racial breakdown of the support for the stop-and-frisk (dark people without reasonable suspicion over and over and over…) law.

It seems New Yorkers have become "antisemites" since Iranian president Hassan Rouhani's visit in September 2013.

On October 9, 2013, The Jewish Week, published History Professor Gil Troy’ (McGill University, Montreal) article, titled, ‘Where Are Your Bloody New York Jews?‘ The article not only shows that Troy is an insult to History Studies, but also a very hateful Jew, who has insulted New Yorker Jews.

The Times has been after De Blasio from the beginning: endorsing Quinn, hit pieces on Chirlane, red-baiting about his past as an activist against US intervention in Latin America… The Times is a solid supporter of the 1% in NYC. No surprises there.

The poll results came from a NYTimes Siena College Poll.
I wonder who was used for polling? Did they call only certain zip codes, or prefixes, or….did they just go to Bloomberg and ask the people in his office?
I wish polls would show the questions asked too, because that makes all the difference

Well I just spent some time educating myself on his platform and i am ready to declare him….just another tax n spend lib.He still believes he can impose any tax he wants, and the rich for instance wont just pick up and leave.Fat chance.Every stat indicates that is exactly what is happening.In essence he taxes the high earners more and more till they leave, taking their businesses with them.And things just keep getting worse.It is as if lib Dems are insane.Making the same wrong move over and over and over again.Of course he will win.New York is three worlds.The rich getting ready to get out do to taxation.The shrinking middle class are taxed too high and cant get out.The people on the lower half growing quickly who simply want to know what their gov can do for them.They are paying no taxes.They will vote for whom ever promises them the most.And that Bill.Leading another liberal charge over a cliff.

I LOVED when the last Mayor said -he was glad Rush and Glenn Beck pulled out taking with them their massive business.Boy does that say it all.All you rich folks get the hell out.We need your kind in New York.Hell orah admited she counts the minutes she spends in NYC so as to beat the tax man.Oprah!!!!!What a fraud.

The game of pacifying billionaire investors to keep tem from leaving to find a a more easily exploitable location does not produce better cities. It produces lower wages, less public service and more displaced people. It only delays the reforms that de Blasio is championing. I grew up in New York when La Guardia stood for , and achieved, something better. The peple of New York are now showing a willingness to remake a caring future.